NJ cop slams own police chief onto car hood after boss shows up drunk to accident scene
By: A Jersey Shore police chief was suspended after reportedly showing up drunk to an accident scene and getting into a scuffle with one of his own officers — who later slammed his boss onto the hood of a police cruiser and told the chief to leave before he “gets a problem.”
The confrontation between Bradley Beach Police Chief Leonard Guida and Sgt. William Major erupted on the night of Nov. 9, when the chief allegedly walked up to a suspected drunk driving crash on Main Street and began berating Major about his uniform, according to bodycam footage obtained by TAPinto, a local news site.
“Why you got a jacket on that’s not fit to be worn?” Guida asked on the recording. “Get rid of it. That’s ridiculous. You’re a sergeant, for God’s sake.”
Major took the jacket off, then walked back to the smashed-up car. But Guida wasn’t done, and called for Major to come back. When the sergeant ignored him, Guida followed and went to grab his arm.
“Don’t you touch me!” Major yelled as he grabbed the swaying chief by his lapels and threw him up on the hood of a police cruiser. “Don’t you f–king touch me! You have a problem? You grabbed me! Now get out of here, before you get a problem.”
Then he lifted Guida back off the car and shoved him away, muttering that his boss was “drunk again,” according to the footage.
Guida began telling other officers to “take him in,” to which Major responded by again trying to shoo him away.
“Chief, get out of here, or you’re gonna’ get locked up,” Major said. “Chief, you’re gonna’ get locked up. You’re grabbing me, I asked you three times to leave me alone. You’re obstructing my DWI … You grabbed me. You were out of line. It’s on video. I’m not going to argue.”
Guida suspends him on the spot and after more back-and-forth, Major heads back to the station to wait for an upbraiding.
Major has since returned to duty, TAPinto said.
But Guida — who was suspended from his $174,000-a-year job about a month after the incident — remains on administrative leave from the 18-member department, according to borough Mayor Larry Fox.
A spokesperson for the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office said the agency investigated Guida’s conduct and “subsequently forwarded our findings to the Borough of Bradley Beach for its review.”
“We fully expect that the actions we have taken, and the additional actions pending in Bradley Beach, will collectively remedy this issue,” the statement said.